The ownership and funding of natural capital: the case for trusts and a public natural capital fund

Dieter Helm

International Journal of Public Policy, 2019, vol. 15, issue 1/2, 125-135

Abstract: Unbridled depletion of renewable and non-renewable resources is a direct threat to both the natural capital inherited by future generations and to economic growth. If depreciation of renewable natural capital has breached critical thresholds and if there is a strong intergenerational equity argument in favour of spreading the benefits from depletion of non-renewable over current and future generations, how do we ensure that intergenerational transfers are made? This paper looks to existing structures such as sovereign wealth funds and trusts as a framework for protecting assets and proposes the establishment of an economically efficient natural capital fund, which would receive the economic rents from the depletion of non-renewable resources, plus compensation for damage caused to existing renewable. The paper also considers how such a fund can be protected in terms of its legal structure, governance and, crucially, its ownership of the natural capital assets it seeks to conserve.

Keywords: biodiversity; fund; intergenerational equity; natural capital; nature; non-renewable; ownership; renewable; sustainability; trust. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijpubp:v:15:y:2019:i:1/2:p:125-135

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